Lest you think there is something going on between me and the stalwart representative of the U.S. Postal Service ... I need to say that he turned up with this fabulous package just bursting with Amy Butler fabrics.

I did the unthinkable for an organized Etsy merchant and put everything aside and just sat and played with those fabrics. YUM!

I ordered home dec weight fabric and it is heavy and smooth like sateen. Takes a pleat with grace and has made my new creations look sooooo different. From now on, bags will be home dec.

Ashley, over at FilmInTheFridge has put together my next project. Sooo nice of her to design, test and create my next quilt for me. I have been collecting polka dots for a while. I have the white ....so am good to go before too long. Click on the link go look at Ashley's creations both on her own site and fliker. Don't forget about the links I put up here for you.....anytime you see underlined text just click on it.

There is this huge plastic tub in my sewing room full of scraps from my bag-making. They are all funny and wonky shapes. Not enough for another bag, but good enough for quilting. Last year, I took a class from Freddy Moran, the queen of off-the-wall fabric combinations and quilts that make you smile. One of her essentials is what she calls "The Parts Department".......I have a plastic box so designated 4" squares and 2" inch strips. When the mood hit me, I will grab some pieces and make a block.

The plan is to square them up and put them together into a quilt. Talk about scrappy! A little nostalgic too since the fabric was used to make a purse or bag that is either in my shop or sold long ago. Please forgive the flagrant promotion for my shop, but if I don't sell bags....I can't buy fabric. I have placed myself on fabric restriction after my Laura Gunn binge!

From Sara and Jade over at Craft Hope for Haiti...
"Wow. Just wow. Sarah here, stopping in to say thank you to everyone who has been part of the wild ride that is Craft Hope for Haiti.

As I’m sure you’ve seen on the Etsy shop, we’ve been listing and selling items nonstop since Friday morning. The response from the craft community has been amazing and overwhelming. You are a remarkable bunch of people. Jade and I and the other volunteers are humbled by your willingness to give when often you don’t have much yourselves. This experience has been a testament to the power of a connected community.

Jade and I started this effort as a quick offshoot of Craft Hope because we wanted to help and knew that sending things was not a viable option. We hatched a little idea about the shop on Etsy and figured we’d raise a few hundred dollars. We had this pie in the sky idea that we’d maybe get to $5,000 eventually. You all got us there by yesterday at noon. As of now, we’re rapidly approaching the $10,000 mark. Amazing. Overwhelming.

From a housekeeping perspective, you should know that listings are taking up to 72 hours to place on Etsy. Currently we are notifying sellers of the shipping information the day after the sale, and we will try to maintain that pace, but it may go to 2 days. We ask for your patience as we process a tremendous number of transactions. We may make an occasional listing mistake, and we’ll hope you forgive us. We have streamlined and slowed down our pace a bit so we don’t make hurried errors. There are only a few of us, and so many generous gifts.

This operation is being run by a mom with 3 kids under 5, including a 3 month old baby and by a mom who is 7 months pregnant and has 2 homeschooling kids. We are relying on the kindness of our wonderful friends (who are also all moms with babies or homeschooled kids or jobs) and our husbands who have given up their weekends to help out. The task at hand has become far larger than we can maintain for any length of time. We don’t want the program to become a victim of its own success because we were so excited to help that we didn’t take the time to set up sustainable systems.

We have decided to stop accepting donations on Wednesday evening, January 20. We will list everything we have received by the following weekend, and we will keep the store open until everything has sold. The plan is to be closed to new donations for 2 weeks while we regroup. This has taken us in a direction that we never anticipated Craft Hope going. In order to serve the community better, we are going to take a break and organize our thoughts, our systems, and our mission. While we would LOVE to just keep on going, we have to do so in a sustainable way so that we do it well and still have time to feed our children, take showers, and interact with our families on occasion.

Over the next few days, we will be forwarding funds to Doctors Without Borders and will post the transactions to this site, so you have verification of the donations. We understand that donating and buying is an act of trust by all of you, and we are committed to living up to that trust. Thank you, all of you, for giving us the opportunity to help the Haitian people in a meaningful way. Because this isn’t about us at all. It’s about the generosity of each and every one of you.

We are all so grateful to be a part of this effort, which is a small part of the larger effort to help the Haitian people. We hope you understand our reasons for regrouping in order to serve the effort even better. Thank you again for everything you have done and continue to do.

In hope,

Sarah"

Well...all of you, thank you so much for all the effort. It has been very exciting to go shopping at the site www.crafthope.etsy.com, and watch our donations sell. Click on the link to the left or the button at the upper right of the page. Time to shop and help out.

Ashley over at FilmInTheFridge posted this photo of her quilt for Etsy's Craft Hope Shop on flikr.

All proceeds of the Craft Hope Etsy shop will benefit Doctors Without Borders in Haiti. All items have been generously donated by the crafting community. If you'd like to donate an item please visit the Craft Hope website (www.crafthope.com).http://www.etsy.com/shop/crafthope

Friday, January 8, 2010

Ooooooooooo..... mgosh! I have found it. I didn't know it was there. Here it is!!!
Found this link over on Filminthefridge and clicked it just because it was there. Well, let me tell you all....you will love this site. All our wonderful new stuff is there from Amy to Windham House and everyone in between, with those adorable Japanese fabrics to boot. There are patterns as well.

Click on a collection, then a fabric and you will see a larger graphic of the design, then some color bars underneath where you can select coordinates to go with your fabric. The user interface is friendly and easy and the site design is eye candy. Not only that.....
...............well you have to go an see.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Yesterday was a grand day....beautiful weather, houseguests and fooooooood!

Garth has been asking a friend from the Bay Area up to visit for who knows how long. Yesterday, he and his wife came to visit and spend the night. And guess what they brought????

DIM SUM! Lots of magical pink bakery boxes packed little incredible foodie delights....pork buns, little egg custards, won ton-wrapped pork and vegie jems, steamed buns with roast pork and those wonderful shrimp dumplings with the translucent skin. Finally, there's dessert. There were little custards; and we had a sweetcake that is going to be dessert tonight.

Friday, January 1, 2010

I love suedecloth, but it is not new to me....But Laura Gunn’s new fabric line “Lantern Bloom” knocks my sox off and really shows off this bag…or this bag shows of her fabric line. The lining is also from the line. Laura is an artist and this bag, inside and out, looks like a painting. The aqua background really makes the orange Chinese Lantern Flowers pop.